Reference is made to the following U.S. Pat. Nos.:
4,552,267, (1985), Layher;
4,598,820, (1986), Murphy.
Integrated circuits represent a class of components that conventionally are loaded into carriers or shipping tubes for shipment. A customer then normally handles the components within its facility in those carriers or shipping tubes. Initially such carriers merely included pins or other stop elements for capturing multiple integrated circuits within the carrier. However, many components, especially integrated circuits in hermetically sealed packages, are susceptible to damage during these loading and handling operations.
During loading, for example, the carriers are tilted so individual integrated circuits can slide down the carrier stopping when they strike another integrated circuit that has been previously inserted. During handling the integrated circuits are free to slide along the carrier because some space accumulates between adjacent integrated circuits. Such sliding can result in significant impacts, as oftentimes a mass of two or more integrated circuits can and do move as a group.
The impact of adjacent integrated circuits during these loading and handling operations can become particularly troublesome with ceramic integrated circuits. The ceramic can chip and crack thereby breaking a hermetic seal and leading to immediate failure of the integrated circuit or rapid failure of the equipment after such an integrated circuit has been installed.
A number of solutions to this impact problem have been proposed. In the Layher patent, for example, the integrated circuit is custom manufactured with bumps on the end of each integrated circuit package by in situ molding of specific material, with additional manufacturing costs. During assembly to circuit boards, air around the integrated circuits can reach a rather high temperature (as during wave or other soldering operations). These bumps tend to have a low melting temperature, so they can soften and distort the package.
The Murphy patent discloses an internal plastic spring at one or both ends of the tube to force adjacent packages in a shipping tube in close proximity thereby to minimize impact during shipping and handling. However, problems of impact during the loading of the tube and during other operations after the integrated circuits are removed from the carrier are not addressed in this approach.